Beauty, Mercy, Justice

Onward Into 2014

Last year, at the end of the year I posted a rather grim “goodbye and good riddance” dismissal to 2012.

I couldn’t think of a single good thing that happened in that cursed year. The dopiest presidential election until the next one, various natural and human disasters, bad news, bad news, bad news.

And my bride’s mother died a few days before my own mother. I hope I do not have to explain what that was like for my children, whose previous total experience of grief consisted of the death of a two year old golden retriever.

2013 was little better in the world scene, though we were spared the tragicomedy of a national election, and no great woes touched our family.

But whatever disasters occurred, and they were legion, they were balanced by the singular grace of the election of Pope Francis.

As I have said before, if I had been asked to design a pope I could not have outdone what God in fact gave us. Except that I would have made him 56, not 76.

At the time of his election there was talk of Cardinal Dolan as a possibility. If this had occurred I would have gone into exile, sitting in the back of the local Greek Orthodox church until this had passed.

Instead, like a gift, this pope walked out onto the balcony and asked the faithful to pray for him.

That was a very different beginning to what has turned out to be a very different pontificate, the central theme of which seems to be the recalling of all of us to the heart of the gospel, to the Person of Christ, and putting all that is secondary in its place.

All of this has been tremendously attractive to those outside the Church, even as it has vexed many within.

Not that this attraction is universal; the economic and political right in particular have reacted with hostility, Rush Limbaugh infamously calling Francis a Marxist. Other secular right wingers have echoed this.

But Catholics of the political right face a more difficult challenge, and they have responded in various ways: the pope’s concerns are delusional because none of them are anarcho-capitalists, the pope is from Argentina, so he, in criticizing the free market, isn’t really addressing capitalism in any sort of global way, or even Michael Novak’s recent declaration that popes have no competence in addressing economic issues.

No, Mr Novak, but they are hugely competent in addressing moral issues, which the economy encompasses.

So 2014 looks like it is going to be interesting. Congressional elections, to be sure. Some state ballot initiatives, including an attempt to get a long overdue medical marijuana bill to the voters here in Ohio, no doubt more weather disasters, which of course have nothing to do with climate change, etc.

But I am heartened, and excited about this pope, and entertained by the discomfort of my old enemies amongst the neoconservatives and libertarians.

And don’t get me wrong; I do not view this controversy, which I have long been engaged in, as the mere disagreement about prudential matters among brethren. The system that the Catholic economic right has promoted for decades has decimated the poor and the working classes. These people are enemies.

Of course I follow Christ; I try to love my enemies.

But enemies they are, and may God forgive me if I enjoy seeing them on the defensive for once.

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20 Responses

I remember reading someplace a prediction that Burke was going to get elected. Boy was I glad that prophesy was all wrong.

Francis has made me feel excited about our Church in a way I never have been before. The jury’s out on how much he’s willing to do to rid the church of child molesters and other sex abusers, though. His emphasis on mercy makes me suspect he might tend toward extending leniency to sex offenders, which could result in the continued endangerment of children. Still, he’s a huge breath of fresh air, and I love the completely different focus he brings.

Plus I have to admit to having quite a bit of fun as I’ve watched all these prominent conservative Catholics who love to insult and denounce CINOs lining up right alongside them to pick and choose as they please. When they do it, it’s okay, though, because obviously a Pope isn’t competent to speak intelligently on issues they care most about.

It is possible to be merciful and lenient to sex offenders without endangering children. It is a three step process:
1. Involve appropriate secular authorities
2. Remove the priest from position of power that enables the abuse
3. Give the priest the choice of leaving the priesthood or becoming a contemplative hermit with limited human contact.

Daniel, I am a Pope Francis groupie. I love this pope more than any other that has come before because he understands evangelization. But I didn’t see anything in the Gospel of Joy that condemned a free market. He condemned the indifference of individuals that use that as an excuse to do nothing to help their fellow man. I think a prime example is that of CNN, which flew over the homes of numerous suffering people in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. CNN was busy blaming President Bush for the mess. They filmed my friend, Mary Silva on her roof, and ran that picture over and over again. Before I met Mary in Arizona, her struggle to survive on the roof was familiar to me. It was an award winning photo. Yet Mary herself says that while CNN flew over her house many times, they never offered her a single bottle of water. That’s the “economy that kills” — that’s the grotesque indifference we are used to in America. And it wasn’t any bloody capitalist that committed that sin of indifference, it was a liberal media outlet. God bless you.

Did you not read the thing? Have you not noticed the defensive and dismissive response of neocon and libertarian Catholics? Or the hostile response from the secular right? The pope said that the socio-economic system is unjust at its root, he condemned the notion that the market will bring equity, he said that the system enshrines inequality, which is the source of injustice. Please; this was as complete a rejection of free market ideology as any pope has ever issued.

I am as much at odds with the conservative Catholics who think the pope is out to get them as I am at odds with the liberals who think the Pope is in their camp. I read the Gospel of Joy, and I can’t say that it condemned the free market. It doesn’t. It does condemn the economy of indifference which kills. And I agree with that. Obama is a prime example. He’s stolen trillions of dollars from us, raised the unemployment rate among the black population, and youth. Youth are shafted in this economy. They have to pay more for health care to support the old sick. His Obama “Care” will introduce euthanasia into this country. What is more indifferent than that? What is more killing than that? You’re sick, so take pills and die? I see the young people in Colorado. The best job they can get is cleaning vegetables at the grocery store or loading my groceries at Costco. How will these young men get a large enough income to support a family? It isn’t going to happen. This is the economy that kills, and the economy that Obama killed. God bless you. Long Live Pope Francis. Susan Fox

Yeah, that must be right; the pope was writing about Obama, not global capitalism. (Rolling my eyes).
Evangelii Gaudium certainly condemned free market ideology, the idea that unregulated markets will result in prosperity for everyone. Pretty clearly this was rejected, though the secular right is more honest in their criticism of Francis; the Catholic right has to appear loyal, so they spin him, as do you.

I’ve read Evangelii Guadium too and I think you are both talking at cross purposes a bit. Pope Francis does not condemn the “free market” per se (free enterprise or the private sector or small business or individual labor and personal success) but certainly strongly condemns an ideology that, as Daniel says, dogmatically believes that “unregulated markets will result in prosperity for everyone,” and one that has been used in America and many other countries by the powerful to justify terrible exploitation and injustice. Unfortunately that positve term “free market” is used as a cover for outright and unashamed plutocracy.
And what the critics forget is that Pope Francis is building on and deepening a strong body of work dating from Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum on.

The Church is against unfettered capitalism and against socialism. I am against unfettered capitalism. The free market is distinctly different. There are hedge funds out there raping and murdering as well as socialist governments run by people like Barack Obama. I agree with that. But the free market is just that — freedom. Such freedom cannot be used to ASSUME that the poor are okay. Each individual must reach out and help one another. Hell with the government, hell with business. Be a Catholic. CARE. God bless you. Susan Fox

“….socialist governments run by people like Barack Obama”? Please. The US is a corporatocracy and Obama is a corporate shill. If you say stupid things like that then no one is going to take you seriously. In one breath you defend the so-called free market, in the next you claim we live under socialism. And your Catholic Individualism (“hell with the government”) is hardly aligned with the mind of the Church or with the principle of solidarity.

I wonder where this “Hell with the government, hell with business” strain of thought in American Catholicism comes from. I know I was primed for it by popular conservatism and then really cemented into it by Dorothy Day’s Catholic anarchism. Is it just plain old American individualism, which infects every part of our culture, petulantly throwing a tantrum against the individual’s impotence in society? Or is there something deeper and more sophisticated in it? It was only after coming to this blog and the Distributist review that I came to see that solidarity and subsidiarity imply that these larger organizations, government and business, are a natural (and therefore good) result of humans families living in community and that their corruption is a call for their redemption, not their destruction. By they way, has anyone done a good critique of Day/Maurin’s thought and how it can either be rationalized or revised without just dismissing it altogether and saying, “They did good works but their ideas were nonsense”? Since my change in perspective I haven’t known what to make of the Worker ideology.

I remember reading someplace a prediction that Burke was going to get elected. Boy was I glad that prophesy was all wrong.

Burke might have surprised quite a few people had he been elected. He was president of the Catholic Rural Life Conference, and was a staunch defender of the family farm. IIRC, he was not a friend of Big Ag. Even now, I’d wager that while he may have other matters to take care of, he is, deep down, still the farmer from Richland Center.

Re “to hell with government and business”: I’d be more inclined to call what’s happening now not socialism, but a revival of fascism, in which big business and big government combine to control every aspect of our lives. i don’t trust government much, either – and I speak as a government employee. And my distrust is for the same reasons as Dorothy Day’s (I do realize our host tends to disagree with Ms, Day on this).

Anyone who calls President Obama a socialist deserves to be immediately and thoroughly ignored. Please go visit socialistworker.org, or other places where real socialists hang out. They can’t stand him.
Even Saint Ron Paul said of our president: “He’s not a socialist, he’s a corporatist.”

I apologize for the bad language. I was talking with my feelings not the mind of the Catholic Church. I have the flu and almost lost my toe this week. I think I’m getting pneumonia, so my feelings got away with me. My husband and I believe that Barack Obama is a Shameless Marxist Ideologue, a fascist if you wish, and we have developed an argument below to support that. The idea is so common however, that one can find pictures of Obama online dressed as a communist, and as another face of Hitler. Because he holds the reins of government, I feel like I’d like the government shut down. If you thought you were living in Nazi Germany, you would want the government shut down as well. Those are my feelings. Re: hell with business. In essence the pope is saying that reckless capitalism is the economy that kills. the Church also condemns socialism however. I was a business news reporter for 12 years, and I did a lot of muck racking, so I reined in reckless capitalism by reporting and disclosing its activities. I did this as a free market supporter. I believed that business behaved better when the press watched it. But now our reporters are such ninny hammers, there is no fourth estate looking over everyone’s shoulder. So I’m glad the pope has taken up the challenge. But he is also talking about the indifference that comes when we say to ourselves, let the government take care of it. Surely, it’s someone else’s job to help the poor? He is challenging us to get off our duff and help our fellow man, and stop using the excuse that the government will take of it. This applies to businesses and individuals. He is attacking our essential laziness. We Americans are fat comfortable and indifferent. Please forgive me for disturbing your blog. I have passionate feelings on this matter.